Conlon Collection Part 6: Wrapping Up A Fun Set

Unlike me, the writer of these cards didn’t seem to be losing steam as he neared the end of this entertaining set.  Below are the final 6 cards and the write ups.

I’ve made fun of this writer several times, but I have to admit the use of ( ) parentheses to describe how Honus Wagner’s legs looked was pretty clever.  I also thought it was interesting that the author noted the T206 card of Wagner as part of the write up and stated that the card was worth “above $20,000 today.”

I also love the photo of Hack Wilson, diving out of the way of a pitch.  I don’t know much about Wilson other than his 191 RBI record, but I thought the footnote about how his fondness for “the bubbly” had kept him out of the Hall of Fame for a period of time was interesting.    After a cursory search, I discovered that Wilson was elected by the Veteran’s committee in 1979, well after his death.   He did appear to be a heavy drinker (and fighter) by the accounts I read.

Conlon Collection: Smack Talking Christy Mathewson and the Babe

I guess toward the end of composing the write ups for this set, the author started feeling a little cocky.  He comes right out and says Christy Mathewson looked like hell at the end of his career, and if you need proof, this set provides all you need:

Card #46:  “Christy Mathewson, as you can see, has had it.”

The author suggests lining up the other Mathewson cards to see the regression of Mathewson.  Easy enough, here they are:

What do you think?  Does it look like Mathewson has had enough?  I’m not that bright or perceptive so I’m not getting anything from looking at these cards.  I especially don’t see much difference in one side of his face to the other.  But it was fun interacting with this page of the set nonetheless. 

The author was also blunt towards Babe Ruth.  Check out the write up on card 48 of the Bambino.  Again, the author asks the reader to compare cards, basically “before and after.”    A scan of the two cards is beside the point here.  What’s important was the comment on card 48:

Card #48:  “Compare the prior picture of Babe Ruth in 1922 and this one two years later- in 1924.  Note the fat and the aging.”

 

As an experiment, I would like all of you guys with girlfriends to find a current picture of your gal, and one from at least two years ago.  When she is your presence, hold up the pictures side by side and say “Huh.  Note the fat and the aging.”  Please document her response and send me a recap.  I will compile the data and release an executive summary of my findings.  Notice I didn’t ask the married guys to do this.  I do not want to be responsible for any divorces.

Conlon Collection Part 5: Peckinpaugh Is Fun To Say

 Card #37 in this set belongs to Roger Peckinpaugh.

Try it with me:  Peck-in-paugh.  Peck-in-paugh.  See?  Told you it was fun to say.  Peck-in-paugh.  I sat on the couch the other night just saying it over an over.  The lovely wife decided she would go out for drinks with her girlfriend instead of listening to me.  Peck-in-paugh.  I need a vintage card of him.  Peck-in-paugh.  I'm disappointed there isn't a T206 card of him, at least that I can find.  But I did see this on the internets:

and I think I need one.  I don't see any on eBay at the moment, but I'll keep looking. Peck-in-paugh.   The above page of Conlon cards has lots of great stories, so I hope you have a few moments to read them.  Peck-in-paugh.

Besides a wicked awesome name (sorry, I've been on the phone all week with folks on our Massachusetts office), I thought the write up on the Peckinpaugh card was interesting, and wanted to see if any of you baseball geniuses could verify what was said:
"Roger had been named MVP for the year, spearheading the Senators into the Fall Classic. However, he made such a miserable showing that never again did the MVP voting come BEFORE a World Series."  That's a pretty interesting tidbit if it's true.  But I thought I had heard that MVP voting was done before the World Series still?  I remember in 1988 when I was certain that Darryl Strawberry, my hero at the time, would be the NL MVP.  Kirk Gibson won the award, with inferior numbers.  I was certain that Gibson's World Series Heroics had swayed the vote in his favor.  I distinctly remember hearing this discussed on the radio, and the "expert" saying that the World Series could not have had anything to do with the vote since the votes came in before the World Series.    So I'm curious who is more credible:  the half crazy writer of these Conlon cards, or a sports radio talk show host in West Texas?

Conlon Collection Part 4: Rube and the Old Perfessor

It's hard to pick only a couple of favorites from these Conlon pages, but I've always been fascinated by two characters that share this page: Rube Waddell and Casey Stengel  You should take a few minutes to read the backs of their cards below.

If you want your head to spin, read Stengel's testimony to Congress in 1958 regarding anti-trust laws.


As for Waddell, I read a little about him in Crazy '08 (which I highly recommend), and that book also mentions (as does the back of the card above)  his tendency to chase fires, literally:  "Among his more respectable hobbies were chasing fires(he adored fire engines) and wrestling alligators; he once taught geese to skip rope."

But that doesn't top the end of the write up on the back of Waddell's card: "His longtime catcher was another flake, Ozzie Schrekengost.  They were roommates and bedmates as clubs doubled up players then.  Rube liked animal crackers and Ozzie got it in his contract that Rube couldn't eat those with horns on 'em."  

I need to read more about this guy, so if anyone can recommend any material, let me know so I don't have to go to the trouble of searching on my own.

Conlon Collection Part 3- A Page of Great Nicknames

I could spend yet another turn at this series yet again making fun of the writing on the back of these cards.    But I’d rather talk about the nicknames of these guys.  I love these names.  Why can’t we have great nicknames today?  I love the Rangers, but they have no great nicknames that I can think of.  Ian Kinsler is “Kins.”  Yawn.  Nelson Cruz is “Nellie.”  Come on.  At least Derek Holland has “The Dutch Oven” going for him.  Look at the names on the back of these cards:  Heinie (my son loves that one).  Pepper. Big Six. Bucketfoot.  I love "Bucketfoot", but don’t understand the explanation on the back of the card:  “… he was known as “Bucketfoot” because he always picked up his left leg and dropped it somewhere near third base when he swung.”  I don’t get it, but again, I am one of the more thickheaded fellows you will come across.

 I want an 8x10 of the picture of Ty Cobb's grip on the bat.

Conlon Collection Page 2: Good Googly Moogly Indeed…

In the first comment on the first post on this series, Jeff from Cardboard Catastrophes just about nailed it as concisely as possible: “Good Googly Moogly. Those look like they were written by a barely literate, and completely drunk, 1950s ad man.”

That nails it.

Here are cards 10-18  for your viewing and reading pleasure.  

A few thoughts:

•  Despite my having some fun with the backs of the cards, I do want to say the photos on this set are superb.
• My favorite line is the opener for Leo Durocher: “Leo Durocher was probably the smartest manager in game control who put spikes in his walking shoes to ease the pain.”     Were there a whole bunch of managers who put spikes in their walking shoes to ease the pain back then?  
• The story about Dizzy Dean drinking the soda on the train was actually pretty funny.
• I  never knew Lou Gerhig was called "biscuit pants".  I love that at the end of the write up for Gerhig, the writer felt it necessary to answer what clearly was a rhetorical question. “Can you believe he (Gerhig) stole home 15 times as a Yankee?  Well, he did.”  Awesome.

These have been so much fun to read, and the photos are extraordinary!  Can you believe I scanned the whole set?  Well, I did.

Conlon Collection:

Remember the days when there were baseball card stores everywhere?  Even in my hometown in West Texas with a population of 15,000 people, there was a card store for a brief period of time in the late 80s.  It was terrible and didn’t last long, but the point is, card shops were everywhere.  There was one store in Lubbock Texas that was my favorite place in the whole world: Faust Stamp and Coin.  I think they are still in business today, although it’s been at least 15 years since I’ve been there after moving to Arkansas.

I remember how excited I was to go to this store as a slack jawed teenager in the mid 80s.  And I even remember a couple of cards I picked up as I was starting my collection. 

I particularly remember the guy working there selling me on a "Baseball Immortals" 60 card set with showcasing the photography of Charles Conlon.   

The guy (who was not the owner, but was always there) must have had a real good sales pitch because he talked my mother into buying this set for me.  I wasn’t that interested, but she wanted to get me something to help start my collection, and this was what he recommended.  I remember him congratulating us on the purchase as he rang us up.    Even then I thought that was a overdoing it a bit.  But I’ve held on to them all this time and I came across these again the other day as I was organizing my collection.  I doubt there is much demand for this set out there, but I really enjoyed looking over it and reading the backs.  The photography is compelling, and the write ups on the backs are loaded with cheese.  I am going to share each page, front and back, with you over the next week or so.  If you want an excellent overview of Conlon and his work, check out this post from Ryan at This Card is Cool.    Here is the first page from the 1986 Baseball Immortals set.

Sorry for any confusion of laying out one scan horizontally and the other vertically, but I wanted to make the backs easier to read.  And these are riveting reads.  I want to know who wrote this stuff.  Just read the first card about Lou Gerhig.  I don't even know where to begin on that one.  It could be because it's late and my brain is not functioning at it's normal mediocre level, but that last sentence doesn't make sense to me.  "His consecutive-game playing streak -2,130 games- may well have killed him (!!), but it was Gerhig's style- first class."  What???  There's so much material to cover on these cards.  Another gem:  "Mickey (Cochrane) sweated like a pig.... and looked like a stripper...  And he was one smart cookie, too."   Who writes like that?  I love it!